Nara, Center Extend Deadline for Terminating Merger

Directors at Nara Bancorp Inc. and Center Financial Corp. will have a few more months to deliberate over the planned merger of the two companies.

In Securities and Exchange Commission filings Thursday, the Los Angeles companies said that the deadline for which either side could call off their $286 million deal has been moved from July 31 to Nov. 30.

The $3.2 billion-asset Nara and the $2.3 billion-asset Center first announced that they were merging in December and said then that they expected the deal to close in the first half of the year.

The companies have not said why the merger did not close by June 30 or why the deadline for calling off the deal had been extended.

Their merger would create the nation's largest bank catering to Korean-Americans.